David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Sussan Ley, read a list of 60 names in the other place. These were the names of 60 women and children who have been murdered so far this year at the hands of people they knew—often, intimate partners. This sobering list shows how urgent and how serious it is that we step up our efforts to combat violence against women and children here in this country. I'd like to acknowledge the work and advocacy being led by the co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Violence Against Women: the member for Bass, Bridget Archer, the member for Canberra, Alicia Payne, and Senator Waters. But it shouldn't, and it can't, always be women speaking up. Men need to stand up and do more. Men need to stand up and be part of this conversation.

Tomorrow, Canberrans will come together, together with Rotary, Zonta, Vinnies, YWCA, Amnesty and EveryMan. We will march in memory of all those who have lost their lives to family and domestic violence; we'll march to raise awareness and to call for more urgent action, more crisis accommodation and more funding for prevention and early intervention. I've spoken before in this chamber about conversations with social workers at the Canberra Hospital who are having to keep women in hospital beyond what is medically necessary, or discharge them into homelessness. We have the great fortune of living in one of the wealthiest country in the world, and so that is unacceptable. We have to do better; we have to treat this crisis with the urgency that it deserves.